Hold the Phone Obama: Islam’s “Golden Age” Was Not So Bright for Jews and Christians

By now, most people know that President Obama is a Muslim sympathizer.

With the Middle East and indeed much of the world plunging into chaos on Obama’s watch, one must wonder why he continues to deny the threat posed by Islamic jihad – whether direct or stealth – by Laurie Sterling – Follow her on Twitter @lauriesterlingm

Considering the fact that ISIS is hell-bent on returning the Middle East, Europe, and eventually the rest of the world to the middle ages, one must wonder why Obama continues to side with the Islamists.

Not much has changed since Obama first took office.

Remember how he romanticized “Islam’s Golden Age” (1) in his 2009 “Apologize for America” speech in Cairo? (2)

In that speech Obama stated, “Islamic culture has given us majestic arches and soaring spires; timeless poetry and cherished music; elegant calligraphy and places of peaceful contemplation. And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.”(3) Really?

The problems with Obama’s sentiments regarding Islam remain the same today as they did in 2009. It seems difficult at best to find examples of “religious tolerance and racial equality” in Islam today. Whether Obama refers to them as Islamic or not, ISIS is simply one example of another brutal Islamic terrorist group, which exists among dozens of others.

The goal of ISIS is to install a global caliphate, wherein those within their jurisdiction will be subjected to Islamic sharia law. ISIS continues to grow as President Obama plays word games with America and the rest of the world.

The “Age of the Caliphates” is also known as “the Golden Age of Islam,”(4) which began in the 7th century and ended in the mid-13th century with the same brutality as the current despotic caliphate being imposed by ISIS all over the Middle East today.

The Golden Age of Islam and Al-Andalusia: A Muslim Mythical Paradise

Most have heard of “Moorish Spain,” but the term “Moor” is simply a euphemism for Muslims, who invaded and plundered the region. Today, Muslim sympathizers still describe Muslim Spain (known as al-Andalusia, and modern-day Cordoba) as an almost mystical, multicultural paradise, where everyone lived together in perfect harmony. (5)

The facts, however, tell a different story altogether. In his 2009 speech at Cairo, Barack Hussein Obama talked about his vision of Islamic ages past as a hopeful model for the world’s future.

He said, “Islam…carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe’s Renaissance and Enlightenment.” (6)

John L. Esposito, a Muslim, expresses a similar sentiment to Obama when he writes, “The most often cited example of interreligious tolerance in history is that of Muslim rule in Spain (al-Andalus[ia]) from 756 to about 1000, which is usually idealized as a period of interfaith harmony, or convivencia (living together). (7)

With ISIS displaying a seemingly unprecedented brutality toward Christians and Muslims who disagree with their medieval interpretation of Islam, a starkly different story about the first rise of Islam is emerging today.8 The supposed Muslim paradise of Islam’s golden age emerged only after hundreds of years of violence and death leading up to it.

Robert Spencer describes the brutal Islamic takeover of an Egyptian town in AD 642. “Then the Muslims arrived in Nikiou. There was not one single soldier to resist them. They seized the towns and slaughtered everyone they met in the street and in the churches – men, women and children, sparing nobody. Then they went to other places, pillaged and killed all the inhabitants they found. (9)

Sound familiar?

Esposito seems to think that it is, in fact Christians who are causing terrorism when he states the following on page 77 of the same book. “In recent decades, conservative and fundamentalist interpretations of Islam (as well at the Christianity preached by leaders like Pat Robertson, Franklin Graham, and Jerry Falwell) have been sources of intolerance, persecution, violence, and terrorism.”

What about the supposed great cultural and scientific advances touted by Muslim apologists like Obama and his minions? Historian Andrew G. Bostom states, [In fact] medieval Islamic culture … had little to do with the European rediscovery of classical Greek and Latin values.” (1)0 Robert Spencer believes that it is nothing more than a “PC myth” that “Islam was once the foundation of a great cultural and scientific flowering.” (11)

While Spencer acknowledges that, “there was a great cultural and scientific flowering in the Islamic world in the Middle Ages…there is considerable evidence that it did not come from Islam, but from the non-Muslims who served their Muslim masters in various capacities.” (12)

In a fashion reminiscent of Hitler’s Germany, it appears that the dhimmis (non-Muslims living under subjugation of Sharia law), had to wear demeaning badges to display their supposed inferiority.

Andrew G. Bostom cites J.M. Safra, explaining some “marketplace rules,” which existed for the Jews and Christians living under Muslim rule in Cordoba.

“[The] problem arises of “the Jew or Christian who is discovered trying to blend with the Muslims by not wearing the riqā [cloth patch, which might be required to have an emblem of an ape for a Jew, or a pig for a Christian]or zunnār [belt], states Safra.” (13)

Sadly, the humiliation and horrible living conditions for Jews did not end with the badges. Muslims staged a massive pogrom in their supposed ‘peaceful’ paradise. Pamela Geller states, “On Dec. 30, 1066, 4,000 Jews in Granada were killed in a pogrom by Muslim mobs. The Muslim chronicler Abd Allah said that the mobs “put every Jew in the city to the sword and took vast quantities of their property.” (14)

Under the caliphate, life for Christians was not so golden either. Richard Butrick from Gatestone Institute cites Andrew G. Bostom: “The simple and verifiable historical truth is that Moorish Spain was more often a land of turmoil than it was of tranquility. … Tolerance? Ask the Jews of Granada who were massacred in 1066, or the Christians who were deported by the Almoravids to Morocco in 1126 (like the Moriscos five centuries later.)” (15)

Today, with the violent rise of ISIS savages, it is obvious that certain Islamic jihadists are resorting to medieval barbarian brutality reminiscent of the Islamic jihad, which preceded the crusades. Yet Obama is quick to attempt to morally equivocate Christians with the jihadists.

Allen West recently wrote an article in response to Obama’s National Prayer Breakfast debacle stating, “As a matter of fact, Islamists still refer to Spain as “Al Andalusia” which means to this day they still consider it Muslim land — after all it was part of their caliphate conquest.”16 That’s funny – Barack Hussein Obama still seems to hold Al Andalusia in a similar regard. And he manages to do this all while he simultaneously turns his back on Israel.

Is it a coincidence that Obama delivered his immigration speech at “Casa Azafran,” a Muslim Brotherhood backed “community center” in a Nashville suburb? (17)

With Obama’s sympathies clearly lying with the Muslims, and his reference to ‘ISIS’ as ‘ISIL,’ (18) which leaves Israel out of the picture, one wonders if indeed Obama is quietly giving a wink and a nod to the spread of another Islamic caliphate. If American continues on its current path under Obama, the world may indeed return to another Islamic “golden age.” The only problem is, for the rest of the non-Muslim world, it will look more like the dark ages.

Laurie Sterling writes for many conservative websites, including Lady Patriots, Joe for America, and her own, Watch Lady on the Wall.

After obtaining her Masters of Theological Studies degree from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary in 2014, in 2005, Laurie released the highly acclaimed CD, “I’m Looking at Heaven.”

Laurie appears regularly on the talk circuit, including Liberty Talk and Lady Patriots radio and is available for public speaking events. Follow Laurie on Twitter @lauriesterlingm https://twitter.com/lauriesterlingm

Join the conversation!

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse.

In 2008 my life changed when Barack Obama came into my front yard on a campaign stop. I asked him why he wanted to raise taxes, and he said that he wanted to “spread the wealth.” Since then, I have gained a national following as “Joe the Plumber” and now travel the country speaking and encouraging other everyday folks to get involved in the political process.